It’s been four weeks since Barcelona played their last match, which was away at the El Sadar before the World Cup commenced. La Blaugrana have already restarted the proceedings today, with the six players available for training, namely Inaki Pena, Bellerin, Marcos Alonso, Sergi Roberto, plus the under-recovery duo of Ronald Araujo and Franck Kessie.
The coaching staff has devised a plan for the first week which will consist of physical training sessions in the morning. Despite the players on vacation having carried out their individual fitness routines, a month without competition makes it necessary for them to put in extra hard work to reach the previous standards they set, especially when they’ll look forward to consolidating their first position in the league when it resumes again.
This is the very reason why Xavi Hernandez will pay special attention to physicality training, primarily without the ball initially, to instill intensity. Andreas Christensen and Ter Stegen are expected to join the camp next Monday following their teams got eliminated from the World Cup exit.
After the elimination of Poland, the Polish marksman Robert Lewandowski will return to the camp in the subsequent days, however, he might not participate in La Liga as he is serving a three-match suspension.
The coaching staff has agreed with the World Cup bound players that, once their participation in the World ends, they can enjoy eight days of vacation before returning to their club duties. The World Cup final will be played on December 18th and if any Barcelona player participates in the final of the mega event, Xavi would still have a minimum of five training sessions to prepare for the derby that will be played on 31st of December at Camp Nou.
